Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve added to our list, as real life has often intruded on our ability to really try out new restaurants. It must have taken something really momentous to have us resume our list, and we have found it!

Our friend led us to the Black Hog BBQ & Bar during an outing with friends, and we can’t thank her enough! We don’t often venture out in Frederick, MD, but this is one of the restaurants that we would happily return for. On second though, maybe for our cardiovascular health, it’s probably a good thing that this restaurant involves a bit of a trek for us.

The restaurant has a very nice neighborhood feel. As we waited for our table, we got to chatting with another customer who claimed that he would dine at the Black Hog a couple times a week ever since it had opened. With an endorsement like that, that just made us salivate even more. My wife and I shared the BHB Triple, meaning we got a taste of 3 different animals on our platter: cow (beef brisket), chicken (grilled quarter chicken), and pig (ribs)! I normally need to go for some BBQ drenched in sauce, but due to my wife’s current dietary restrictions, we tried to minimize that and go for something a little more dry-rub based. The ribs and chicken really did not need an extra sauce, as they had an amazing dry rub that just helped bring out the flavor. The table was equipped with a few sauces to add on; my favorite was blending a bit of the Carolina vinegar-based sauce with some of their mustard-based sauce and with a bit of their smoky-flavored sauce. This really added to the brisket and the ribs that were already amazing! The sides that we chose for our platter (beans & rice and southern greens) were equally excellent!

Though we did not try it ourselves, some friends ordered some chicken wings that they said could have used a little more salt. Fortunately, they seemed to be appeased by the choice of sauces.

There’s very little not to love about this place. There is some parking, albeit limited, in the back. Our friend wanted to watch a rugby game on the television, but it happened to be on a channel that the restaurant/local cable did not carry, but these are just minor quibbles for an otherwise amazing BBQ restaurant. And my wife was worried that she wouldn’t ever find a BBQ restaurant that she would enjoy as much as the one we frequented when she’d visit me out in grad school…